SimuCon 2003

PART 2 (Guild Seminars )
As a general disclaimer any of this info may be wrong for a variety of reasons.
What does that mean? It means these notes could be wrong from either people misinterperting what was said, or not hearing what was said, the GM's may change their minds and ideas be altered or scrapped, or any other numerous things.
Remember, just because you read it here doesn't mean it's set in stone.

There are multipe note versions per section. (different people's notes)
It was just easier that way people, otherwise there would have been a LOT of editing.

The following people should be praised for making these notes available for you:
Jolebin, Tyrathia, Mozzik, Indigoe, Larcus, Magdar, Taffei, Apu.

[Barbarians] [Bards] [Clerics] [Empaths] [Moon Mages] [Necromancers] [Traders] [Warrior Mages]

Barbarians

Barbarian Guild Notes
by Jaedren, Skiori, Damissak & Ssar
Split Time--Damissak and Skiori doing most of the Dev work
New SHARED Ability
• Parry missle at pole or melee
• Parry the missle bow/crossbow--NOT arrow
• PRE firing, not post
Magic Resistance
• Vertigo spell vs. Stamina
• Not effect enchanted items
• eg. if you enchant a flaming sword, BMR won't keep it from flaming
Crossings Guild
• HWN:
• No Gweth
• Steel Wall for posting of maker's marks
War Stomp
• End of July
• 100th Circle
• Unbalance person(s)
Roars
• 26
• Existing will stay but change
• Roar every 10 starting at 5th
• Guildleaders teach
• at 5th and 15th one only
• at 35th can choose any roar
• Each will be very distinct
• Inspiration: 18 -- Intimidation: 8 roars
• Directional
• will effect those you are facing the most
• others in the room will be to a lesser extent, including barbs
• single room only--no multi room roars
• Roars with a negative effect can effect other barbs in the room
• stun other barbs rather than pump them up as they currently do
• will effect other Barbs--intimidation
• No chamber of roar forgetfulness
• not all available
• P5 guild roars--Need P5
• 4 each guild
• two from each guild will have a quest
• Vocal lore will have very very little effect on recovering from roars
• Tiered vocal damage
• will be a preview of each roar
Barb only weapon shop
• Open next week
• Rotating stock
• 'Better' weapons
• 'level' requirement--10th or 15th circle
Chakral
• more refined
• unique design
• Wolf-->Crossing guilds
• Mark kits
• Rough ones will give roundtimes once fixed
Greatsword(BARB ONLY)
not fixed yet
Berserk
HWN
• See red haze in room
• no retreat
• many types of berserk(like roar)
• 10,20,30 or 20,40,60(circle)
• Berserk in absence of others
• Extremely high level possible
• Dance and berserk simultaneously
• 130ish
Meditation MAYBE
• check around HWN
Engagement
• Ok, will do--Ssra
Multiple opponent attack

Bards

Bard Guild Panel
HSN
Rumor system is done
• players can go to NPCs and ask them about rumors. NPC will randomly pick a rumor to give the person.
• Can whisper new rumors to NPCs, but the rumors will be GM approved before being added to the system.
• Traders and bards will be first with info because they'll be able to use rumors.
• Rumors will spread from town to town, province to province, over town.
• Rumors will have a duration and will spread until they disappear everywhere.
• Fayrin's rest to Muspar'i took 21 days as longest lasting rumors
• All rumors won't go everywhere. Must travel.
• They can set up NPCs to only talk to particular people--female barbarian gnomes for example.
• NPC biases.
• The NPC will tell you where it started.
• If you put garbage in the rumor system the GMs will talk to you and/or remove the ability to use it.
• Circle restrictions on entering rumors are dependent on who created the NPC/area
Bardic abilities
• 3rd-to 40th. 6 in all
• Bardic scream
• stun, internal bleeders at high levels, blink and look at you funny, room affecting, damage is consent--IF it causes damage. Don't do it in town.
• skill based, charisma
• cannot do it often
• Piercing whistle
• Direct the attention of critters away from others towards you. Only critters.
Performance bunnies
• playacting
• 40th with training can playact anywhere
• practice somewhere first
Practicing
• will be practical
• will restore confidence level(bonus)
• will gain some small bonus to singing, performing
bonus
• confidence
Team enhanced juggling--not there yet
communication
• whistle certain signals
• can try and direct to one person
• training to understand
• enough skill, whistle to other groups in the room
• basically lorespeech
Music Lore is coming off AES
Birds--low or mid level bonus
• 12-15 different birds, some will be race only
• No avatar of any god, no steriotype
• Will be in your physical description like an OM orb
• Will have to work for it.
Current quests suck
• Redo current and add more.
• musical puzzles
• Damn lot of them.
• Not interested in syntax puzzles
• Post/mail quests.
Five isn't enough voice throws
• Two more voice throws planned.
• talking about going up to ten.
• approval to do whatever they want as long as it fits.
• performance oriented--thieves will have them also
Recall
• 20-30 recalls coming out
• each new predictions have recalls built in
• lots of cross-guild interaction
Bardic hunting area
• some areas may *need* a bard to access
Enchantes v. 2.1
• Bare bones
• Spell slots like magic primaries
• Key, tempo
• Core system mostly
• determines difficulty of playing two different enchantes in the same area--skill check
• 4/4 time vs. 3/4 time
• eventually multi-room enchantes
• will be doing preview for enchantes
• HSN
• May not get enchantes back if you screw up the events
• play WITH another bard the enchantes--give a bonus to how well they can play it
• power perception works the same
• PM/instrument using rather than PM/HM
• Music skill determines music clash
Mana song
• determines how much mana you put in an enchante
• defaults to minimum
• can change the mana on the fly, while it's going
spells will auto prep at minimum
Cambrinth leech
• draws slowly from charged cam in addition to harness
• messaging for when cam is empty
Stats are more important to the contested enchantes
fatigue and concentration drains are gone
Melodic enchantes can be played on several types of instruments
Rhythmic enchantes are percussion, sometimes voice only
Performing an enchant
• creating and recreating the spell pattern to keep it going
• will be easier for a bard to get it started than a spell to cast
• barbarian resistance only counts when the enchant starts or bard changes room
• they don't all go indefinitely
• messaging is going to collapse
• Enchantes have:
• an introduction
• verse
• chorus
• bridge
• refrain
• altro
• solo--instrumental part
• Different song parts will give different effects
• Will have difficulty ratings to them
• effectively backfiring
Multi-bard enchantes
• not in initial release
Ellie's Cry--will be playable while dead. Is considered a 'ghost song'
Creatures will be using enchantes eventually
no scroll enchantes for a while

Clerics

Clerics--GM Zabari

Theology--aka cleric lore
will be a req for this skill, but will not need to be the highest lore
Will gain this skill through use of rituals and communes
It will be your true power as a cleric
• where devotion is your expendable pool
• theology is like strength
It hasn't been decided how this will be introduced as far as grandfathering.
It will not be teachable in the beginning.
Beads will be tied in somehow.
Holy symbols will be used against undead & Theology will be a major factor.
Spell changes:
• KW--combat defense with spirit, OM compatible
• Spirit Beacon--gone/dead/walked/not coming back
• MF--Those who have it will NOT have to re-quest but there will be something SMALL you will have to do
• It will remain at the same level
• SA--will be fully rewritten AND OM compatible
• PS--completely rewritten to be disabling against large numbers of undead
Resurrection--not going to be 'just a spell'
• to get through the quest work your survival
• huge quest
• you will not be able to do it alone--not be able to do the quest alone, will require more than one guild
• it will still be circle AND skill based
Communes
• will be re-writing the system
• some will change
• especially Eluned and Tamsine

Empaths

We chose the red pill and went down the rabbit hole. We don't know what the blue pill would have been. Meanies.
You all probably know the new death and dying system will be in on Thursday.
On Sunday(a week from today):
Transference will cease to exist. It will no longer be a requirement for guild advancement. It will be replaced by the new lore skill empathy.
There will be a change in perceive health. Empaths will be able to tell when someone in the area, and possibly when someone at some remove, is dying.
Leeches and bloodsuckers will be teaching, but the exp rate will be dropped significantly.

Empathy is the ability to know what someone else is feeling. There is a limit to how many people you can empathize with, and drawback(s) to empathizing with too many people.
Successful attempts to perceive health will teach empathy. It will have roundtimes associated with it.
Empathy is a lore that involves a sensitivity to another person/creature's body.

There will be a new ability called Manipulate. It will have to be taught to you, you will have to figure out how to get the ability on your own.
This can enable you to influence a creature which might normally be your enemy to think you are a friend, or pit that enemy against another enemy. Empaths will be able to use critters to kill other critters and this will not cause empathic shock.
It will NOT work on players. It will involve skills check(s). And it is highly inadvisable to start on high level critters.

Guardian Spirit will be rereleased during HSN. We have been told it rocks. Also been told to PAFO.

NPC empaths will probably start charging based on a sliding scale this summer.

Guildleaders' personalities and histories as well as the guild histories are being vastly developed.

New lore skill called anatomy.
At least one other guild will have to learn it from empaths(noncommoners).
It will be one of the primary skills for an empath. There will be empathic requirements. Some ranks *MAY* be grandfathered in.
Ways to learn anatomy: Empathic touch First aid may teach Appraising critters and other PCs may teach
Will not be in before August, *MAY* be in Hot Winter Nights, may be in DR2.

Undead and creature healing will be coming in DR2. Currently creatures and players are on two separate health systems. In DR2 those will be combined and make it possible for us to heal undead and creatures. When? Soon.::ducks::

Empathic shock.
Why can an empath not hunt, or not swing a sword without getting shock even if they don't actually hit anything?
When people are born today, over many generations, people have been developing the skill that will be empathy. As that power/ability developed, the suppression of it also developed. Everyone is capable of becoming an empath. Those who make the choice to be combat oriented learn to suppress empathy. Empathy and the suppression of empathy are reflexive mental actions. When someone joins the empath guild, suppression is not developed much if at all, but the empathy instinct is primed. The skill for suppression is suppressed and empathy is enhanced whena person joins the guild.Empathic shock is something done to the self when the suppression is suddenly activated to the empathy part of the brain. It is the natural suppression reflex which has been suppressed kicking in and kicking hard.

Nissa's binding is not a shock issue. The guildleaders are going to be taking more action than they have been in the past.

Transference is the magically aided empathic manipulation of damage.

Healing will teach Primary magic and empathy, much like it teaches PM and transference now.

Auto-empaths will be affected by this news and not all of them will be to the liking of everyone. Novices who couldn't be able ot afford them might be able to in the future. Older characters can expect to be charged accordingly.

Healing is still going to be how new empaths need to start. The things coming down the pipeline are for established empaths. The path of the healer is only one path open to us now.

Shift Seminar
Shift requires three things:
• Power
• Skill
• Imagination
Theoretically something could be shifted to anything else--dragon, mountain, forest, etc.
There are no teachers for shift currently.
Some say Jomay was one of the first to shift, some say she was one of the last ones to do it. Either or both could be true or false.
Rakash shifted in one form get hit in the other form in some way because of limitations in the current system. These will get fixed in DR2.
Shift is not illegal because the Guildleaders don't want it to be known to exist. And if there is a law against it, it is known.
The dissolution of the Imperial Healers' guild was done because the leader went insane and started spreading disease, deformities, chaos. The empath guild was formed in part to protect the empaths. Jomay was(is) an Imperial Healer.
Shift help is not likely to change because there is no one to change it.

Shift and Features:

Shifts in place for 500, 1000, 2000… Towint however didn’t include units. I can only assume this is an averaged skill of the major skills involved…

What is Shift? Shift is the ability to empathically alter shape limited only power, skill, and imagination. In short Shift is capable of anything you can imagine… if you got the skill and power to back it up.

Remember all those lifelike statues from the Old Empire? You didn’t think they were carved… did you?

You could shift someone into a dragon… a mountain… a forest. But the skill required is well… God-like. The skill we have is more… baby-like.

Jomay is rumored to be the first to shift in the Old Empire as well as the last. Either may be true.

Keep in mind… Jomay has been practicing for 500 years… current empaths have been working at it for 3.

They are planning to fix the Rakash issue of getting weird features when you shape change… but it will have to wait for the feature rewrite, which needs the expanded capabilities of DR2. This will also give more features and better organization.

At low levels you may end up with unintentional side effects of a shift…

They may allow some “shift only” features to come out of the CM, (and grandfathered to others) but it would be like one random one you could choose to keep or not. Savant eyes are an example of something like this (So you could just rechoose features till you got it and may end up with some of the less pleasant features) as well as some of the other Easter egg features in the CM.

The reason Shift is not illegal is because legally speaking… it doesn’t exist.

The leader of the Imperial Healer’s guild went insane from Shift (So say histories)

Empaths were partially assembled to help prevent that sort of thing from happening.

When Shift was historically known you have the equivalent to witch hunts and the pure terror in the populace.

All information on Shift was suppressed to prevent a repeat of all that.

So how can you be jailed for shifting? Remember… someone in authority doesn’t have to give the charge of Shifting, they can have you jailed for any number of charges that ARE on the books if they realize what you are doing.

If Vorclaf finds out about Shift he would logically want to first find out who can shift, and secondly… make them work for him. Control them and use them for his own reasons. Shift identies for example…

When shifting… remember if there are NPCs in the room… it’s still not private.

So how wide spread is shift?
Platinum – 297
Prime – 9355
Fallen – 390 + 72 forced
Jomay – 80+ (But Towint thinks that number is way low)

Why can Fallen Empaths force shift and we can’t? Because Jomay never visited The Fallen, they entity that taught them shift was from another world, and so far beyond Jomay in skill that he was constantly shifting himself. He was pursued by others from another world who could sense shifts so he started shifting people and teaching them to shift to help provide cover for himself.

Why does shift cost so damn much? Because the Empaths set it that way and the GMs will NOT get involved in it.

All shifts are much easier to reverse then to cause.

When the Leth hair shop comes back it will only be able to shorten hair and add temporary color (perhaps some non shift ones like purple poka dots)

Ideas from players:
Beard/hair growth stop
Permanent scars
Features based off stats (burly with a lot of strength, wiry with a lot of reflex etc)
Gills (likely a temporary shift)

Beards CAN be shifted more then one step at once.

All shifts have more randomization factors then we know.

Does the surrounding mana matter? Perhaps – Towint.

Towint insists players cannot even do 10% of the shifts that are live…

Very doubtful any player will ever have enough skill to shift races.

Possible, but very hard, to shift inanimate objects.

Age messages when you are looked at is in review.

Shift will be able to swap right or left handed (and perhaps with a lot more skill ambidextrous, although in Combat they said no ambidextrous characters.)

Height will change to be absolute (and thus work better with verbs etc) “soon”. And anyone else who bugs nibble will die.

Non permanent shifts (more drastic the shorter they will last).

Shift Help will NOT change unless someone finds an IG teacher to teach empaths more about shifting instead of discovering it all on their own. Empaths really need to find a shifting teacher for major development.

The entire way the bonusing system works will be rewritten (Mentioned here… didn’t have a better place to put this note and affects Empaths and CJs/Predictions thought Towint really links inter-guild cooperation.)

Traps could cause wounds that need shifting (Burning hair off for example).

Lifescupting is a part of shift… or the other way around. Towint wouldn’t say.

Empathy will be tied to shifting (presumably this was the new skill he was referring to. That or anatomy I suppose).

Empaths may be able to train stats for TDPs in placed without stat trainers.

Some low level shifts may be introduced that higher people do not know how to do (weren’t taught, didn’t happen to discover it) until taught by someone who does know it.

Tattoo removal will be (or perhaps is) possible for shift, though custom tattoos will not. (There was a long discussion of tattoo patterns and shifting the ink from the pattern into someone…)

Shifting height beyond the current limits (very tall or tiny) will be much harder and may cause side effects (Emaciated etc).

Moon Mages

Sect specific spell prep messaging coming in Hot Summer Nights (two weeks)

5 new enchantments approved and ready for release. They are:
-Mirkik Sokis (Dwarves are involved somehow)
-Atashi's Eclypse (somethign to do with Goldcaps)
-Gardens's Vision
-Eluned Scrye (The locating Fishbones!)
-Divination Bone creation

Permanent Moonblade is still under GM Rigby, and on hold, but for good reason. (weapon and armor review) There will be 4 types?! This has me intrigued personally, maybe I'm reading too much into this.

4 High level enchantments approved but not started yet. (no names given)

The 100th circle quest is finished, and an ability will come with it. The quest will take place UNDER Taisgath island. GM's Talian and Rigby had seriously evil glints in their eyes when they invited anyone to try the area. Apparently it can also be considered a hunting area. I'll wait for a log, I don't enjoy death. :)

Enchanting experience is still needing to be looked at for mind state issues. The different phases will teach different skills.

There will be more Unbend sigils released. (no time frame given)

Constellation Amulets/Jewlery IS going to be looked at and made more desirable somehow.

Prediction System...
The LONG awaited prediction system is DONE. :)

There will be a new verb (moon mage only?) called Align. This will allow you to purposely try curses or bonuses. (I assume power is decreased, but have no clue really)

The Align verb will be learnable at 4th circle through a mini-quest.

There will be 4 new tools to allow Moon Mages to predict, they are:
-Celestial Charts
-Mirrors
-Sandstone Bowls
-Crystal Prysms (suspended from chains)

As you may notice that leaves out Tokka Cards. They are still needing to be worked on. The good new is that with the new predictdion system, Talian can introduce new divination tools easily.

Hand Survial and Body Survival will be combined into Survival. (for the sake of predicting)

We will be able to predict event information. Example: We will feel a tingle or 'something' and then we can observe the entire sky and attempt to learn some information. Constellations that were going to be fore events will instead be like other constellations. Clerics and get the feelign too, and then come tell a Moon Mage and have the Moon Mage do the prediction and tell them about the visions.

Observe will be changed from a Yes/No to a 'quality' system.

Power Perception will be re-written at some point, this should allow for more abilities.

Time Sense will be getting more accurate. Your skills will still play a role.

Su Helmas needs work, but is still going to be 'Sick'. (read uber cool) Geographically speaking, it will be near Langefirth, up around the sun vulture area probably.

Some HIGH level enchantments not approved but being seriously considered:
-Crystal Ball (from what Talian said it may be able to do, this thing will rock, oh and it's like a 150th circle enchantment.)
-Shadow Pocket (take a shadow servant and skin it and *bam*, well sort of. Think 'bag of holding'. Weight will still be the same, but the container will hold much more. Also, very small chance you may lose your item in the shadowy stuff)

To hurry up and make Moon Mage barrier spells more appealing beyond Character vs. Character combat, Talian has 14 creatures coming soon that will be using magic. Again, Talian and Rigby seemed way too happy about any chance to kill characters. :P

Moon Mages:

(Info from talking with Rigby and Talian)

When CJs first came out (this may not have worked for about a week) they gave the full bonus every time then would bonus just a single rank but the message didn’t change. Rigby thought he was being sneaky… but it backfired on him.

Rigby believes gweth stones are too common right now (And when mentioned that gweths will be harder to make due to needing 2-3 of the new lores… Talian seemed to think this was a very good thing)

Talian mentioned that almost everything Trib was working on he now is (Su Helmas, the mech lore break up, he now owns gweths). Forgot a lot of what Trib was working on but he does have plans for them. Su Helmas will likely first be seen for HWN and we will eventually see moonstone gweths. Outside of this Talian wasn’t talking.

Tezirah’s Veil DOES have a minor enchanting use. It has been on the boards before and I’ll let people play with this one. (If you don’t figure it out… don’t worry about it).

Rigby pointed out the reason most people hate TV is because they don’t understand it… key thing he made me guess at before confirming with it (since I’ve hardly played with it) is that it’s SvA. This means for some mages (his PC for example) find it MUCH more effective them WvW spells like MB. Also he said that he finds learning PP off critters to work fine you just need to spell them up (If your just training could even Shear em) another reason TV has an edge on MB in some situations.

Thugs will be reviewed… particularly the amount of junk they leave laying around.

Rigby has about a dozen solutions ready to swap in at a moment’s notice if the current one becomes too well known to get into the Leth manor. You have been warned.

Unleash IS currently overpowered for enchanting, it’s still using old numbers (Just in unleashes case this works to it’s advantage… much as devourers need far less mana with shadows right now).

Focus Moonbeam should actually have a mana cap… apparently it doesn’t right now or it’s WAY over where it should be.

TV is one of Rigby’s most used spells but almost never uses burn.

For those of you wanting to know who Talian is… the two hints I got: 70+ and did a lot of bone research.

Taramaine is around 447th circle (I may have that about 10 circles high… almost forgot to write it down). Karosti is 150th+ and as Talian put it… HUGE emphasis on the plus.

(Meeting)

Giant critter magic update coming (about 18 critters including all our shadow friends (shadow masters get CrS OUCH! Eviserators get Shear, the others shadow web and DO making for just a big ball of fun! Also at one point one of the shadow critters would actually predict on YOU though this isn’t currently working)

Shear and Psy both need reviewing after the critter magic update but all barrier spells will likely be a lot more useful as soon as all that critter magic goes live.

Bones have been totally rewritten so they might as well be a new tool. Will make more sense (Talian having done a lot of research as a player saw them as a GM and realized how little he knew) and will have some new messages (and some old ones that just never actually were seen but were in the code).

The new tools are:
Starcharts for the Compact
Mirrors for the Tezzies
Sandstone Bowls for the Pethians
Crystal Prisms for the Monks
Bones (redone) for the Nomands

Tokka Cards are still “soon”, the prisms are because Monks did not have a documented tool (will be looking at vibes and light in them), bowls will need to be filled with water and the type of water may matter. Charts will be very math based, more long term and precise based on what is in the sky.

ALL tools will be able to have bardic recall performed on them. All tools will also have custom “oops” effects (Dropped bowl, spilled water, and chips to repair…)

“Victims” will also get the good/bad message when you predict on them.

All tools will teach some side skills (Scholar/mech (Or whatever after the break up))

All sects will have some bonus and penalties to certain tools (Non sect mages will get a tool at some point).

NO Player Y’shai. It was considered and then just realized that it wasn’t happening (Many IG years to prep for the training, the massive skill needed to control full plate camb… the walking issue… it just wasn’t realistic. Taramaine having you as a familiar…)

The Children’s Manor will open later but currently cannot be reached. It was mainly built as a safe place for the Children to mock us from. Bastards.

Hand and body will be merged for predicting… didn’t have a lot of sense to be split when much larger skill sets will not be (weapons will be like what 24 skills when all the new skills are out, lore 16? And that’s not counting guild only skills).

Predicting events is nearly done, you will be able to do it over and over any time there is one in the queue (there will be a message when it’s added) to recall it and such, and will be based on an entire sky observation (so the event constellations will teach something else). Clerics will get messages that they HAVE visions but will need a moon mage to see them for them, perhaps predicting on the cleric.

Observations will have a quality to them, affecting the power of the prediction (and how fast you pool fills?)

Telescopes are due for a rewrite (put telescope on ground for example…)

Sky due for a rewrite (At night you won’t see something is up if you haven’t been taught to find it… this also goes for other guilds). Lots of junk stumbling around there (Talian was poking around the other day and found Rigby’s dead body in the sky from a prank awhile back some may remember)

PP will be rewritten for us sometime this year, resulting in more accurate info on moons (when they will set as well as rise…), knowing more what’s happening to the mana, increased usefulness of time sense.

Teleport still needs work (it’s underused right now). Unless your Rigby… he uses it… but his PC is also a Tezzie.

Looking into alternate means to teleport (this isn’t approved yet).

The Ways will be coming eventually and be expanded so they have uses for all circles.

Possibly some Taisgath expansion into some survival training and such.

Arid Steppes (Steppies as Talian insisted they are called much to Cadaya’s chagrin) will be in P5. Su Helmas will be out past Sun Vultures.

Fortune’s Path’s ship WILL be mobile (Huzah!) with a few games of chance (not a full blown casino… awww…) that may use one of our cantrips, and members will have a way to locate where the ship currently is (I suggested this be tied to another of our cantrips…)

Getting into Su Helmas the first time will be sort of like a free Quest in it’s involvement, but after that you can return any time.

4 high level enchantments are approved but not yet made. The two mentioned are:
Crystal Balls (Incredibly powerful, Talian is really looking forward to making them, but we’re talking like… 150+ as the crowd making them.)
Shadow pockets (Sort of like a bag of holding though it doesn’t get rid of the weight, just vastly expands the volume of a container on the inside. Downsides are you might grab the wrong item, can’t see inside with a look, and if you put too much it may leak a few items out. You ask me I just want to stash boxes in my cloak, origami paper in my belt, and a claymore in my boot… phase out my backpack totally!)

Perm Mooblade is on hold waiting for weapons and such to stabilize with all the review they are getting. Otherwise the plans for them are the same (4 types and other things to make up for giving up the major advantage of moonblade in that you are never without it.) Means we won’t see it until at least DR2.

With DR2 Imbue will no longer thrash an items original use (Making way for weapon enchantments to actually work and so forth).

Enchanting will be rewritten but most of the effects will be invisible (Know all those bugs we keep posting? The minor quirks in the system? The 1000 stone unbend sigil?)

The Children are setting us up for some HWN releases, and may (with other events) result in some major guild shake up and new leaders. Good times.

Talian upped the chance of forming a shadow master with devourers, and there is a message to all GMs when one is made (so they can come and watch. GMs are sick)

With the lessened restrictions on guildhalls we can expect to see one in Throne City, perhaps more with HWN. Mer’Kresh will also get a guild.

TC housing in HSN (Huzzah! About time!)

Sect Preps (look for these VERY soon… like 2 weeks)

Guildhall upgrades. Examples include a garden in the middle of the Crossing guild with low level climbing and swimming.

New Enchantments (low level ones coming for HSN) No we weren’t told what they do, but they sound like they might have some sect affinities in there....
Mirkik Sotlis (Not sure on that second word… my handwriting is very bad. First word is dwarven for dark (of color).)
Atashi’s Eclypse
Garden’s Vision
Eluned Scrye
Divination Bones

100th circle quest is under Taisgath and involves a lot of shadow critters.

Enchanting exp needs to be reviewed (this was mentioned last year and will likely be in the major enchanting review. If I recall the main change that was needed was shifting astro exp to MD exp in the binding steps to help not fry mindstates and balance the skills more), plus more unbends are planned.

CJs are indeed in review.

Predicting is 100% done and waiting for HSN and will include the ability to align (Try and force a curse or a bonus) with a minor 4th circle quest. Enchanting may also work on critters at some point.

Secondary effect of LADs that was suppose to go live with v2.1… isn’t working. Makes me feel better for not figuring it out all this time as it’s exactly what I expected it to be when I found LADs in the first place. Oddly enough Talian already realized this but Rigby did not.



Necromancers

Seminar: Necromancers: Making Death and Dismemberment Work for You
Hosts: Rigby, Cadaya, Solomon

The entire presentation featured some really awesome graphics created by Rigby.

"We're going to do it, whether you like it or not."

There was trouble with the presentation, which resulted in us all having a good look at the American Pie wallpaper on the laptop. Solomon: "Oooooh, Nadia [Shannon Elizabeth]! Or maybe Michelle [Alyson Hannigan]." Solomon's chip was getting soggy [from salsa].

So here's the pretense [did they mean "premise?"] for the new guild. Cadaya and Rigby proposed it, and Solomon told them that he needed some "alone time" with the proposal. So, Don't Clerics have a claim to death? Yes, but the undead are an affront to the gods, while Clerics are servants of the gods.

Necromancers in DR will play a very different role than they do in many other games. In Elanthia, Necromancy is a way of life. Necromancy does not involve ghosts or spirit manipulation, so it will only involve corporeal undead, which will act as puppets. Being a Necromancer is far more than just Arcane magic. They are obsessed with death. They will be survival prime, which ties in with the highly illegal nature of their practice. They are Lore and Magic secondary, because magic is just a tool of their trade. In addition, they will have a unique skill in the Magic skillset, called "Scarification." With this skill, they will transfer their own scars onto a corpse, which is how they exercize their will upon it. If a Necromancer teaches scarification to an Empath, the Empath will actually learn transference, and vice versa. Except, transference is changing to empathy.

Necromancers will have a heavy reliance on the bodies of creatures and characters. As a result, the Necromancer will need to be combat ready, despite all combat skills being tertiary for them. The key skills will be skinning, first aid, scarification, light edged, and mechanical lore. And it will be tough to join the guild.

Necromancers will have an interesting consent structure. Ask yourself, "If Necromancy is anathema to my Guild (Paladin, Cleric) or Race (Pyrdaen, Rakash), can I kick their butt? Well, yes, in certain situations. If an individual is wearing a Necromancer title in town, or brings their undead servants into town, everyone has consent on them. Also, Pyrdaen and Rakash will have difficulty trying to become Necromancers.

This is not like a true Guild, but rather an uneasy alliance of powerful Necromancers. It is much more segmented, and each guild leader is a power unto him-or-herself. Certainly, the sovereigns of the five provinces do not like the existence of Necromancers, and none of the guild halls will be in cities; their locations will be game secrets. We can expect to see some roleplay events leading up to the availability of Necromancy.

There have been some famous Necromancers throughout Elanthian history. They include NecroLord Sidhlot, the Bone Elves, BoneDancer Lasarhhtha (a.k.a. "Yoda"), Emuin, and Lyras, Chaser of Cats and Dogs.

It is likely that Necromancers will be limited to neutral and evil alignments only, if they introduce alignments into the game.

Then there's the Risen. They are the main undead servants of the Necromancers, and they make them themselves. The Necromancer will depend on the Risen for combat and to gain experience. More than one can be controlled by a Necromancer at once. The Risen will be obvious in their appearance. The Risen will be unable to use regular equipment, but enhancements will be possible through spells. There will be great benefits to this customization, such as gaining special attacks. They are powerful creations that stay around as long as you want (unless they are destroyed), but they are ultimately disposable. They have weaknesses as well. They require constant repair. They are an affront to the gods, so bringing life to one causes you to lose a favor.

There will be a system for repair and maintenance. They have skin (it does a body good), which can be taken from critters. Empaths can do nothing to heal them. Necromancers will have an Unravel verb to dismantle the Risen of other Necromancers. The Rot Stop ability stops a creature from decaying, and it is done through scarification. Early on, Necromancers must gain a great deal of mechanical lore experience, through hair threads and cords, bone tools, and bone armor.

There will be templates for the Risen. They will have differences in speed, strength, and other stats. Expect to see about thirty templates.

It was asked if we could use player character parts in the Risen, and the answer was that it would be fun, it's a possibility.

Necromancers will not be able to use Unravel against corporeal undead that gen in hunting areas. But the Risen can be called forth and sent away, and buried underground for safekeeping.

None of this will show up until DR2.

It's possible that your Risen will be able to guard your grave. This will be "easily the hardest guild to play." [Yeah, oxymorons!]

If you kill a Risen, the Necromancer will probably have consent on you, but they're not sure yet. The loss of your Risen will not stun you, though, because there is not a magical connection between them.

A Necromancer will have a "Little Book of Horrors," so that they can kill creatures, Rot Stop them, and study them.

You'll have to dig up your buried Risen yourself; they won't climb out of solid earth. The Risen are not intelligent, and thereby are limited.

Necromancers will have four spellbooks. Evocation Sorcery creates physical things. It includes Energy Manacles, Limb Disruption, Worm's Mist (will create little purple worms), and Risen Shell (for creating the Risen). Domination Sorcery forces things to do your bidding. The spells include Fear, Slumber (which causes narcalepsy in its victim), Sleepwalker, and Kaelstraum's Darkrift (creates more bizarre creatures). Corruption Necromancy is related to diseases, and consists of Corruption, Dancing Cadaver (not as powerful as a Risen), Servant of Five Fingers (sever your own hand to serve as a critter under your control), Bonewrack (a way of causing damage without destroying the corpse), and Shower of Leeches (a similar was of causing less damage in death), as well as five other spells not yet named. Perversion Necromancy includes Blood Drain (to gain vitality), Miasmic Touch (a melee range poison attack), Blood Puppet (a minor undead being used for support), Undying Strength (to improve the Risen's stats), and Venom, plus three unannounced spells. Feral Magic and Blackfire Magic will not be given to Necromancers. But they include Frog (turns a person or critter into a frog) and Incinerate (a destructive Blackfire spell), respectively. Rigby also displayed the prereq tree.

The Necromancers will have a variety of abilities. Rot Stop will transfer a scar onto a corpse, sustaining it. Death Sense senses dead creatures and characters through power perception. Eyes of the Dead allows a Necromancer to place scars on a critter or character corpse's eyelid, allowing the Necromancer to see through its eyes. At a high level, the Necromancer will gain Grafts, the ability to graft parts of corpses onto himself. This is permanent, and the wound is unhealable by Empaths. At about 100th circle will be the Descent into Undeath skill, whereby a Necromancer actually becomes a living undead with incredible powers. This brings weaknesses though, such as to blessed weapons and anti-evil abilities. And the Necromancer will never be able to gain favors again.

Necromancers can get favors in the normal way, for playability reasons.

Necromancers will probably sense Life and Elemental mana, but they will see different amounts than a Warrior Mage or Ranger might.

This new guild is for the advanced player, and not those who are easily grossed out.

Necromancers (in no particular order): (Note these are not 100% finalized form of the notes mostly a straight transcription from my short hand)

Who to blame? Rigby, Cadaya, and Solomon

"I'm going to close my door and have some alone time with this proposal" - Solomon on the staff boards after seeing the necro proposal.

For Necros death is a way of life. It effects EVERYTHING about them and the way they live. They are compleatly obsessed with it. These are NOT your standard D&D etc necros.

No ghosts! No spirit manipulation. Necros will ONLY deal in fleshly undead, which are more like puppets, not intelligent.

Survival primary, lore/magic secondary, spell slots as a magic prime.

NEW SKILL - Scarification. This is a magic skill, necro only. If taught to an empath they will learn empathy (New name for trans), and empathy taught to a necro will teach scarification. This skill is used to transfer your scars to another (some living some dead) to exert control over them. Teaching this skill will NOT out an necro (at least to an empath) and presumably this means empathy will be teachable.

Key Skills: Skinning, First Aid, Scarification, Light Edge (as a starting skill - think surgeons), mech (some of what it will break into), anatomy.

Will be combat heavy despite being tert to gather corpses.

Circling (indeed surviving) as a necro is intended to be VERY hard even with some compromises from realism to make it playable.

Hard to join (NO in city guilds, well hidden)

Perhaps an arrange type ability but it would be very different then the ranger arrange.

Consent - If you have a title or undead in town or are being blatantly a necromancer EVERYONE will have consent on you. Understand this. This is a big reason there is emphasis on expansion to cut around any city.

Guards may well have issues with you in town for the above.

Necros will be FAR more frowned on then thieves, we're talking major taboo here. Beyond illegal.

Prydaens and Rakash will have NASTY penalties if they are a necro.

Even joining the guild will not be easy.

"Even more things they can do to undead in The Fallen" - Solomon

Survival skills needed to get to guilds.

Nasty (more then thieves) reprocussion for outting their secrets. "They know where your grandmother is buried" - Danalea (sp?)

Events will lead up to their release.

Necromancers:
NecroLord Sidholt
The Bone Elves (These two may be a major faction)
Bonedancer Lasarhhrha (HATES the Bone Elves)
Emuin (sp?)
Lyras, Chaser of cats and dogs (verbatim from the presentation)

The above may well be some of the guildleaders

Introduction evens will likly involve some of those.

When alignment comes out you will NOT be able to be a good necro.

Allegiance to certain leaders, very fractured struction as opposed to a formal guild system. More a shaky alliance.

Possibly alternate vaults "Replacements" for necros, perhaps the same for a bank or a hidden bank.

------------------

The Risen: (these will be essential)

Undead that act as servants, used for exp, defense, and advancement. You can have more then one but there are reasons you may not.

Customization:
#1 - special attacks
#2 - Ultimately disposable
#3 - Powerful creation

Weaknessess:
#1 - Constant Repair (Empaths cannot heal them)
#2 - Loose a favor every time you create one (offense to the Gods)
#3 - Necro's proxy (Necro dies and the Risen stops doing anything)

Repair:
Skins - Does the body good
Unravel - Stops other necro's Risen temporarily
Rot Stop - Prevents decay so bodies may be worked with
Repair - Hair thread/cord, bone armor, bone tools.

WIll not be able to make Risen right off, need to study life and death first.

Risen templates. Upwards of 30+ (tripods, centipede etc. Hydra's would be a high level one.)

"Study of the Flesh" - The necro's lil' book of Horrors. This is a book all their notes will be in, used to study bodies help make Risen etc.

Possibilities - Player parts in Risen instead of just assembled body parts of critters.

Can be sent away or summoned to you, but not like a familiar. NOT magical other then commands. Can bury them outside the city to hide them, and go back to dig them up later.

Limits on rapid advancement? This is something Solomon would like to see (though Scarification will stop for commoners. This may be for all guilds (Not jumping 7 circles at once for example... Mostly something Solomon just threw off in there.)

Reliant on their book early on particullarly, before Risen to help. Need it to study dead bodies, effects of certain body parts etc.

----------------

Magic (A spell tree was put up but we were running late so I didn't have time to copy it. Photos were taken but we'll see if they come out)

Evocation Sorcery:
Energy Manacles
Limb Disruption
Worm's Mist (Barrier spell)
Risen shell (Armor for your Risen)

Domination:
Fear (rewrite first)
Slumber (Narcoleptic effects)
Sleepwalker (Causes people to sleepwalk, duh)
Kaelstraum's Darkrift (Creates a critter)

Corruption Necromancy:
Corruption
Dancing Cadaver (Temporary creature - raise dead like thing)
Servant of Five Fingers (Removes you hand to be a thing like creature.)
Bonewrack
Shower of Leeches (Damage/preserve for parts)
(All necro damage spells are designed to damage in unique ways and preserve the body for uses)
(Plus 5 more spells)

Perversion Necromancy:
Blood Drain (Regain some vit)
Miasmic Touch (Poison at melee - Poison WILL be expanded in DR2 outside of theives a lot, same with disease)
Blood Puppet (Basically a bloody shadowling (note: Not really a shadowling but same general idea of aiding the caster))
Undying Strength (Risen booster)
Venom (Big "Nyah!" to the thieves here)
(Plus 3 more)

Necromancers will NOT have Feral Magic (Example spell... frog. Self explanitory), Blackfire (Incinerate, warrior mage spells only, scroll only NOT perm learned, this one should be out HSN)

Mana will basically be an average of life and elemental (Lunar not included for gameplay ease) ending up Arcane.

-----------------------

Abilities:

Rot Stop - stops decay and transfers scar.
Death Sense - PP to sense nearby dead
Eyes of the Dead - Target dies and caster can see only the target's location (must mark victem with eye scars)
Carrion Tongue - Talk through the mouth of a corpse
Graphs - PERMINANT wounds (removed hand etc) that can be replaced with monster parts for bonuses (scorpion tails, troll arms for strength etc) These will be optional.
Descent into Undeath - 100th level ability. The ultimate choice. Basically you become a lich (can be dome any time after 100th) Gain MASSIVE strength, advantages, practically unkillable. Disadvantages? Blessed weapons hurt you, protection from evil, no way to hide you are a necromancer (constant consent)... oh yah... you can NEVER gain a favor again. NEVER. No paladins granting them to you, nothing. Might I suggust maxing out your favors first? (99?)

Traders

Trader Guild Panel Notes

Trader Business Associates - Approximately July - Traders will gain the ability to accuse a pickpocket to the Traders' guild (in any trading outpost) and the guild will send out it's, uh, 'business associates' which will try to track down the pickpocket and teach them a lesson (complete with a complimentary stun and shattered hand for good measure). The Trader must be on official guild business for the guild to get involved (i.e. the Trader must have a caravan rented and be traveling on the direct trade route between any 2 outposts).

Market Stalls - Approximately August - 40th Level Restriction - Stalls will be set up in the market bazaar which can be rented by a Trader for 1 Elanthian month (10 real-life days) for the price of 10 platinum. Each stall will contain 3 tables which the Trader can use to set up their goods until their time runs out. Whenever the Trader leaves the area, the tables will be covered until the Trader returns. The sign on the outside of the stall will read the Trader's name (i.e. Naria's Fine Merchandise). If the Trader wants to close up their stall early, they can just kick the table and all their goods will be packed up into a container for them.

Creature Trading - Hopefully Winter 2003 - This is a very intriguing system where Traders would be able to trade with sentient creatures such as goblins, kobolds, gypsy marauders, etc (but not adan'f, they're too evil). The Trader will enter the trading area (which will only allow 1 Trader at a time, and will include a timer for how often a particular Trader can enter), and there will be a list of 3 things that the creatures are willing to buy. These can include certain commodities or even storebought weapons and armor. Once the Trader offers the creatures his goods, the creatures will have a list of 3 things they are willing to trade. The first thing will be another commodity (which may or may not be something worth much more in Commodity Pits than its worth to the creatures). The second thing will be a pouch of gems, or a bundle of some skins from a nearby creatures (such as getting cougar pelts from goblins), or a bunch of treasure boxes. The third thing will be something random from the treasure system, which can range anywhere from a yummy rotting haunch of meat to a perfect firecat pelt to a kertigen tear (obviously quite rarely). The system is quite complex, including (I think!) quests from NPCs in order to gain access to different levels of the system, and is also upgradeable (including having goblins generating with the broadswords and plate mail that Traders sold them - and the Traders who sold them getting in trouble if discovered!, or having how many of the creature you've killed before effect the results of your transactions).

Messenger servants - No timetable given - These will be similar to an ability that a certain other guild may or may not have, but will likely be more limited and/or different in certain ways.

Containers on mainland caravans - Released this week on Thursday! - 35th level restriction - If you have ever seen the kregkeirels (sp?) that Traders can rent on Aesry, then you know what is being released. The pannier containers will be included automatically on any caravan or pack mule rented by a Trader over 35th circle. The pannier will be able to hold items, which as far as Godrich has been able to determine, are 100% crash-proof. There is no volume limit (you're throwing it on the back of a caravan!), as well as no item limit (due to the way they're coded, they don't take up system resources when in the container), and a weight limit of 10,000 stones. The items will obviously not be stealable, and they will also not disappear even if you get booted and your caravan does disappear. If your caravan starves to death, or otherwise disappears, you'll need to head to the stables to see if they still have it. If it died, they'll yell at you for killing their animals, and your caravan rental fees will be more expensive in the future, but your items will be stored at any guild outpost.

New Ilithi outpost - sometime "soon" - There will be a new trading outpost somewhere near Shard, which is going to be in an area which is not currently released (so quit guessing Horse clan and the cabin up in gargoyles!)

Financeable outposts - sometime "soon" - There will be 1 new financeable furrier and 1 new financeable outpost. One will be in Therengia and one will be on Aesry. Godrich would not say which was which.

Counter-marking ability - Conception stages only - As you may know from the boards, Godrich is working on rewriting a certain Thief sizing-up ability, and his intention is to include some sort of way for Traders to focus on disguising how many coins they have in their pockets for a short amount of time.

Secret Codes - Some point in the future - This would be a shared ability between Traders and another certain guild which may or may not have a reason for being secretive. There will be different levels of codes that Traders (and another guild) can learn, and Traders can also try to break the codes written by the other guild. Writing codes will teach scholarship, and breaking codes which are a challenge to your skill will teach more scholarship.

Warrior Mages

Seminar: Warrior Mages
Hosts: Valdrik, Chakram

Valdrik did most of the talking.

This has been an interesting year; we got a full team. We still need to come up with a list of what we got done. Debt no longer affects your ability to circle, we got guild registers back, the evasion penalty went away, and a new guild was installed.

We have the armor contest winners! [I don’t know if I got these spellings even remotely correct.] The overall winner was Shadowtog. For leather armor, Elaine won with Coven in second. Light chain was Rasha with Shardric as runner-up, while heavy chain went to Oraca with Trisivia right behind.

Somebody asked about the Warrior Mage shop, and whether it was still in QC, or what. Valdrik said we can expect it for Hot Summer Nights! Also for HSN, we'll be getting Chain Lightning, cantrip updates, and a new guild on Merkresh.

Chakram mentioned that he's the brains. Valdrik agreed, saying that he (Valdrik) "just type[s], that’s all [he does]."

Valdrik then discussed the guild's plans for the coming year. First are foremost: weapon enchanting—but it can't be done until DR2. The proposal (10-15 pages) went in months ago, but it's not approved yet. It's similar to the spell system, where each individual spell is just "plug and play." There will be sufficient variability, so that not everybody will be walking around with the "flaming sword of doom." Instead, some people will have a "really cool flaming sword of doom," while others have a "really, really cool flaming sword of doom." Enchantments will come in tiers, so that eventually a mage can place multiple enchantments on one weapon. Some of the enchantments will be useable by Warrior Mages only. The proposal is for up five enchantments on one weapon. "Sooner or later" we will also get armor enchanting. There will be an enchanting spell, but it will have other uses. In fact, it will kill everybody in the world. Enchanting will involve lore skills, maybe quite a bit. Valkdrik is "dead set" that weapon skill will not play a major role in enchantment. Rigby and Valdrik will be looking at all magic devices in the game while planning enchantment. The target Circle for characters to begin enchanting will be 50th. There will not specifically be an enchanting skill, but enchanting will teach whatever skills it uses.

Hopefully, this is sort of pending, but Valdrik wants to work on the Aesry sentineals. They are those big towers on the stairs. The grey one is ours. Warrior Mage abilities are on the list. Valdrik wants us to have a good defensive ability. But Active TM disrupt is on the back burner right now, and is not a priority.

Even though Rottcloar couldn't make it to Simucon, we wanted to know about familiars, so we asked. Valdrik told us that Rottcloar never had a chance to tell Valdrik anything before Simucon, but he was willing to take down our suggestions and questions for him.

Chakram likes "watching you guys die."

The meeting had pretty much become a Q&A by this point.

Q: How about Blackfire?
A: It's taken care of, in theory. It's there, it's on the books, it's earmarked for us.

Valdrik and Chakram pointed out that Moon Mages look goofy and geeky. Also, Valdrik is still working on the issue where it is sometimes possible to wind up shunned from the guild for an arrest. Valdrik's voice craked, and Valdrik said that he will go through puberty, some day.

Q: Can we cast Frost Scythe into our own hand and focus on it to prolong its existence?
A: Something like that might be an enchantment. If someone said that you would be able to prolong frost scythes and fists of stone forever, I'll kill them. I don't forsee that happening.

Q: What will the Fissure prereqs be?
A: 25th Circle.

Q: Will there be support for Cabals?
A: Valdrik brought it up to Maelona. The core guild needs to be more robust and developed first.

Q: Can we get weather control?
A: Weather is getting a facelift. Anything like that has to wait.

Q: How will Warrior Mages fit into the career sytem?
A: There will not be a WM only career. Valdrik wants to become an alchemist and make naptha cocktails.

Q: What's this about cantrip updates?
A: We're going to add a few new things to make the existing cantrips more useful.

Valdrik has "spilled his beans," and now he feels naked. Oh, he doesn't plan to add the Aether planes to the Fissure spell.

Q: Can we get a travel spell?
A: Look for the Aesry sentinel release.

The only area Valdrik ever designed is in the New Crossing Temple (3 rooms). The temple of the future is in Valdrik's sigilated ring.

Aavarine: Can we get an event inside the guild hall?
A: We nuked the mana out there, but you all still hang out outside.

The Warrior Mages will be working with Bards on the Aesry sentinels. In general, everything for the guild is scheduled for Hot Winter Nights, so Bubba can cancel it.

Q: How about the Unbinding spell?
A: Atrathien was on crack when he conceived that. And then he left without giving anyone any information about it. We're scratching it off the list, to replace it with something better.

Q: Will there be guild events?
A: We'll be starting on those. It's all on the plate.

Q: Any plans to make more functional spells?
A: Eventually. I know Earth Sense kind of sucks.

And, hey, every guild is getting a special ability for 100th Circle. The Warrior Mage's will be similar to the old Aethereal Pathway planned spell, so that a mage can hit a critter after targeting it, even if the critter hides or leaves the room!

[Back to Menu]